Guild Wars 2

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Guild Wars 2 is a future MMORPG created by the Seattle-based ArenaNet studio, a subsidiary of NCSoft corporation. It is the sequel to the original Guild Wars trilogy, announced in late March 2007 in a number of gaming magazines such as PC Gamer.^[1]^[2] No release date is announced, but open beta-testing for the game will begin in 2008. Guild Wars 2 will feature a number of new playable races besides humans, including the Charr, Norns, Asurians and Sylvarians. It will have updated graphics, and will continue the original Guild Wars tradition of no subscription fees.

Guild Wars 2 will also be significantly different than the original trilogy. Key differences will include a much higher maximum character level (hundreds of levels, or possibly no level cap at all). It will prefer a global persistent world instead of the instanced design of its predecessor, though instances will also be used in other settings. A character's choices will impact the world as a whole: their actions will trigger or disable quests. Events will allow for players of different levels to continually interact in the world.

Guild Wars 2 will be set hundreds of years after the Prophecies and Eye of the North stories. An altered NPC companion system will be implemented, but characters will be rewarded for not using this system. "Sidekicks" will allow powers from high-level characters to transfer to lower-leveled friendly characters. Player versus Player combat will also change significantly from the original trilogy. Such competition will be world-wide and massive in scale, and characters will use whatever skills they currently have to aid them. Certain popular forms of competition from the original trilogy, such as Guild versus Guild battles, will continue to exist in Guild Wars 2.

Players of the current Guild Wars campaigns and the expansion will be allowed to "port" achievements obtained in the original Guild Wars to the Guild Wars 2 universe using a system known as the "Hall of Monuments". Player characters will not be transferable from the original trilogy, however.